Port overtakes Saints for runner-up position in Northern Division

The Cedarburg Mercs had already sewed up the Land O’ Lakes Northern Division title, but there was a battle to the finish line for second place during the last week of the regular season.When the diamond dust had settled Sunday, it was the Port Washington Lakers who surged into the runner-up spot with a pair of hard-fought victories.Port ended the season with a record of 11-7The Saukville Saints, however, fell into a two-way tie for third place in the standings with three disappointing losses. They ended up with a regular season record of 10-8.Port Washington 12, Grafton 6A six-run fifth inning gave the host Lakers the lead for good in their final regular season game Sunday. The game was rescheduled from Wednesday.In that pivotal fifth inning, Port’s Mick Borchardt doubled home the lead run. Ed Kozlowski and Kyle Kichura added run-scoring singles.After spotting Port a 3-0 lead in the first, the Express scored five times in the top of the third inning to take a 5-3 lead.Key hits in Grafton’s big inning were Joey Thome’s two-run triple and Brian Hirschinger’s RBI three-bagger.Chris Laurishke collected four hits for Port, with Kichura and Kozlowski adding three each.Grafton’s top hitter was Mike Pruefer with three hits.

Despite favorable weather, late surge in registration, largest catches in three species smaller than last year

Fishing has been down on Lake Michigan this year thanks to the long winter and subsequent cold water temperatures, but that didn’t stop anglers from reeling in some big fish during the Port Washington Lions Club’s annual fish derby last weekend.“The numbers were down quite a bit this year, but we were extremely happy with the weather Saturday and Sunday,” derby organizer Dave Mueller said.Mueller said the derby had about 65 registrations Thursday, but jumped significantly after fishermen heard reports of a 32-pound brown trout that was reeled in earlier in the week.“We always have a lot of guys register on Friday, but this year a lot of it can be attributed to the big fish that was caught,” Mueller said. “Guys wanted their shot at a record.”Alas, the largest brown trout was down significantly from last year, at 13.6 pounds. It was caught by Laura Olund of Menomonee Falls. Last year’s winner was 18.2 pounds.“The four biggest browns we got were from one boat,” Mueller said. “From what I heard, they were near the southern part of the county line.”There were also a slight decrease in the size of the winning chinook and coho salmon compared to last year.